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View Poll Results: Which Proposal should be pursued for inclusion in the BRCS?

I included a listing for a combination of 2 proposals - so if you think that is the best way to go, then post which combination you&#39;d like to see. This is not referring to variants but rather a combined proposal, for example proposal A with the scion class descriptions more like those in proposal D, or something like that.

I will be looking for a clear majority, something along the lines of twice as many favoring one orf the proposals. It is also entirely possible that more than one would be selected, one default and one as a variant.

Note that this is really independent of anything that 3.5 might affect so don&#39;t worry about 3.5&#39;s impact on the blood score - although it may affect the blood abilities themselves, but we&#39;ll deal with that bridge when we come to it.

The revised BRCS version loses much of it&#39;s inherent simplicity by doubling the stat for no real reason other than a sense of backwards compatibility.

The experience points method relies on probability balancing for its bloodline strength - this is against the tenents of 3rd edition as seen in the revision of psionics.

The blood-points system would seem to have the most potential, and I do like the clear descriptions of what you get for you for your invested points in each ability. However the inclusion of fractional ECLs, redundant arithmetic and multiple generated attributes (strength, score, points) make the system opaque and initially confusing. If this system was simplified and re-written for clarity, even at the expense of simulation accuracy, it would be a clear winner for me, but for the moment, no.

Finally, I selected the feat-like approach - but reluctantly. This is solely because of the inclusion for the Scion class - which I am wholly against. I would be much happier if the Noble class gained access to these feats, and the template method was used, but as is it is the lesser evil of the four choices.

Thinking about it, I agree with your argument that it&#39;s not more complex, just more different and that is the problem - but unfortunately I think you&#39;re stuck with making it simpler than the more familiar systems to compensate.

On the "redundant arithmetic" I mentioned: why 3d6 - 2 ? The 3d6 (or 4d6-drop-1 nowadays) is the most "comforting" of the familiar D&D generation mechanics. Why not just have the table start at 3?

On clarity and formatting: you can summarise the generation in less than 10 words ("3d6-2, d6 x Bloodline Strength value, spend BP on blood abilities") and yet in your proposal the reader has to scan 3 pages before they hit the step-summary. Consider on the first page a dominating boxout, reading something like this:

Determine heritage strength. This will also determine your bloodline modifier. See Section 1.

Determine bloodline score. This will also determine your maximum number of blood abilities and the bloodpoints (BP) you can spend on them. See Section 2.

Determine your bloodline derivation. This will determine which blood abilities you can select from. See Section 3.

Spend bloodpoints (BP) on blood abilities. See Section 4.

Note that I&#39;ve re-named bloodline strength to heritage strength (heresy&#33 and bloodline points to bloodpoints. This is because, with bloodline strength, bloodline modifier, bloodline score and bloodline points, it seems like there must be redundancy in the system (4 stats for the one attribute?) even though they all serve different purposes. Plus for beginners it is hard to remember which does what when they all have very similar names.

As to the section references, each section could similarly start with a summary boxout with the detail, exceptions and additions in the body text around it.

After reviewing the proposals (now that I finally was able to download them properly), here are my thoughts and suggestions:

I like Mark Aurel&#39;s idea that Charisma can substitute for a Bloodline Score modifier. After all, the 3e PHB describes Charisma as one&#39;s inner power, and it further encourages scions to have a high Charisma - which they should.

In general, I like the BRCS playtest version as is. Most of the proposals seem to make things more complicated, not less so. So far (in my own playtesting) I haven&#39;t found it to unbalance the game or make for ridiculous amounts of math. Some of the proposals look like ways to make the bloodline scores synonomous with the original 2e edition.

I&#39;m generally a fan of random ability score generation, so I don&#39;t run into the "being penalized by starting points" problem that others have talked about with a seventh ability score.

I definitely like the idea of scion class levels (from proposal A) to help balance out the ECL adjustments. Just giving the scions some skill points and hp for each level, along with the existing blood abilities and regent bonus HP, goes a long way toward making those extra levels feel worthwhile.

I wouldn&#39;t cry if the Great Heritage template disappeared. I think True Bloodlines end up competing with Great Heritage for the same spot. Aren&#39;t Great bloodlines already representative of a great heritage?

If scions of Great bloodlines regained access to the bloodline abilities that Great Heritage scions get (like Divine Wrath and Regeneration), it would vindicate their rarity and "greatness," rather than playing them off as 3rd rate (behind Great Heritage-Great and True bloodlines).

On the other hand, a power like Invulnerability should definitely be limited to True Bloodlines. It&#39;s a truly legendary quality, right out of myths and legends, and thus should be limited to the legendary figures of Cerilia.

As for Bloodtrait and Bloodform as prerequisites: don&#39;t the abilities gained from monster levels already justify many of the special powers inaccessible to normal scions? Why give them exclusive access to blood abilities? I recommend keeping it really simple, and making powers available based solely on the four bloodline strength templates (Minor, Major, Great, True).

Yeah well, you can&#39;t win &#39;em all, aye? Still, I can see a less drastic change being appropriate. There are good points to the proposals, I&#39;m just a little miffed at the insistence on making blood scores like the old 2e ones. Is it really a problem to just halve the old scores to make them compatible with new ones? Or are there other problems there that I&#39;m not aware of?Osprey